


Monophobia

by UlisaBarbic



Category: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TV 2003), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - All Media Types
Genre: Being Lost, Brotherly Bonding, Brotherly Love, Gen, Horror, Psychic Abilities, Psychic Bond, Psychic Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-31
Updated: 2017-09-18
Packaged: 2018-12-09 06:16:17
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 14,755
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11663328
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/UlisaBarbic/pseuds/UlisaBarbic
Summary: The Turtles find themselves heading back down to the underground and this time, it may involve an enemy that they don't even know exists. But the enemy sure knows them...





	1. Alone

It wasn't that Mikey hated the dark...well, okay, maybe he did hate it a LITTLE bit. Given his life, could you really blame him though? Aliens, government agents, mousers, crazy Frankenstein-ified scientists...there was something to be said for being cautious, wasn't there? Plus, he had crept in the shadows to sneak into SO many places that the old parental comfort "there's nothing in the dark that you don't see in the light" just plain wasn't true. There was a shell of a lot in the dark that you couldn't see!  
  
Well, he certainly thought so and forgive him if he was not overly thrilled by the prospect of going down into that dark underworld again! Hadn't they had enough problems with that stupid place? He thought when they defeated the crazy lonely dude and freed all the people that there would be a 'do not enter' sign placed there. With blazing neon lights and a 'trespassers will be shot' warning.  
  
Nope, no such luck. The ol' Turtle Luck working true to form.  
  
He could tell that he was unnerving his brothers though. Not because he was being his annoying self, poking jokes and teasing but because he wasn't. Felt bad about it too! That was his job, the jokster. He took it upon himself to make everyone lighten up, to keep everyone from going all doom-and-gloom. He couldn't shake the feeling though. Something felt off. As much as he and his siblings teased Leo about having all the crazy 'ninja senses' they all had them. Michelangelo was not routinely known for "utilizing" his but they were screaming at him right now.

Or maybe he was just scared.   
  
"Mikey..."  
  
Donnie, he could always count on Donnie. His genius brother lay a hand on his shoulder, his warm brown eyes focused and attentive. "What's wrong?" He added, "We're with you, you know. You're not alone." He smiled, knowing as well as his other two brothers how much Mikey despised being alone. "So, what is it?"  
  
Their two older brothers up ahead, paused, turned around. Mikey considered, for a moment, being honest. After all, wasn't Leo and Master Splinter always blabbering about how honesty is what propelled the link and all that stuff? However, there was also the pride. He had grown since their last trip down here. He was a Battle Nexus Champion, right?! He could handle anything!  
  
Plus, his brothers didn't need any more reason to go overprotective emo on him.  
  
"Oh, nothing." He said simply, folding his arms, "Aside from the fact that we're going back down into that creepy, underground city and I seem to be the only one that's been keeping score. Every  time we go in there, something tries to kill us!"  
  
His brothers, as expected, rolled their eyes in exasperation. Good. Having them be annoyed at him was a lot better than having them worried. He'd take the blows against his character if it avoided that. Leo already worried enough for all of them for the rest of their lives. Besides, it wasn't like he had any evidence about something. Aside from, you know, ALL their past experience down here!  
  
Raph elbowed Leo, "I see the Turtle-Chicken is back in season."  
  
Leo, to his credit, turned around and addressed his youngest brother, despite how easy it would have been to go along with Raph's teasing. Mikey made it way too easy sometimes and while he tried to focus on being a good leader, he was a brother and some things the sibling part of his personality could not resist, "Mikey, you saw it, same as us."  
  
"I saw **something** " He felt inclined to correct. "The fact that I didn't get a good look at it suits me just fine." He added, "I also don't know how many teeth Leatherhead has and I'm in no rush to find out."  
  
Donnie interjected, "Mikey, it had all the traits of one of Bishop's experiments--"  
  
"Traits, my shell," Raph interrupted, twirling his sai on one hand. "He might as well have signed the thing."  
  
Mikey frowned, crossed his arms across his chest. Granted, he had to admit they had a point but something had felt different. Everyone and their mother knew Bishop was always obsessed with creating the next "step" in evolution of a super soldier but this thing had _felt_ different. He couldn't describe it to you if you asked why it felt different just that it had. Now, give him a sheet of paper and he could have painted or sketched EXACTLY what he felt from it but that wasn't an option.  
  
Besides, no one in his family was very good at the emotional interpretation thing. Hence why when things got rough, it fell to Therapist Mikey. Oh, they didn't say it in so many words but when Raph got into his Wolverine-mode or Donnie became hermit-man or Leo decided he was 50,000 years old, it fell to him to snap them out of it. Fine by him but that made it a little difficult when **he** needed someone that spoke his language. Donnie came close but right now, despite having that worried look that made the genius turtle look way older than he was, there was the same exasperated 'here-we-go-again' look.  
  
Leonardo opted to break up any potential fights by taking command, "We don't know where this thing is going. With all the alien technology that Bishop has been exposed to, we can't take a chance."  
  
Raphael felt inclined to add, "Then there's that abandoned Foot lab down here too. I bet Ol' Agent Smith would love to get his hands on that."  
  
Mikey winced "Thanks for the reminder, Raphie!"  
  
They continued in silence. It was a familiar path, one they had walked several times but this time, they didn't really have any tracks to follow, just an overall direction. Don had said something about being able to pick up on any genetic abnormallies when he got within range but beyond that, they were just wandering blind. Mikey felt it necessary to comment on them playing a huge game of Hot and Cold (which got his head smacked soundly) but it at least broke up the somber feeling.  
  
Except when the time came to rest and sleep.   
  
Leo took the first watch but Mikey couldn't sleep or maybe it was more he didn't want to sleep. The last time they had wandered down here, he had gotten dreams of that creepy city. Granted, it had ended up helping him but with the way he was feeling now, he didn't want to risk having another one of those. Rolling over onto his shell, he changed position for what felt like the fifteenth time--  
  
"That's the twenty-third time you changed positions."   
  
Leo's voice was hardly provoking but Mikey's eldest brother had this amazing ability to deliver an unspoken command. Shifting, Mikey rolled onto his left side, eyeing his brother who simply looked at him out of the corner of his eye. "You've been keeping count?" He intoned, "Bordering on stalker-creepy, bro."  
  
Unfazed, Leo remarked, "Only because it's about double the amount of times you usually turn. You've never been a still sleeper Mikey but even for you, this is a bit much."  
  
Mikey sat up, giving up on sleep. Least he had someone to talk to. "Hard to sleep when we're tracking some giant mystery monster into the depths of some creepy cursed city that we've been to twice before and never with good results."  
  
Leo eyed him, again, with that critical leader look that not even he was good at resisting. "It's more than that, Mikey."  
  
Sighing in defeat, Mikey relented, though only somewhat, "What? Your ninja-senses haven't been tingling?"  
  
The blue banded leader gave a half smile. "While I wouldn't exactly describe it like that...yes." He looked his brother up and down "And yours?"  
  
"Like a freaking five bell alarm." Mikey admitted. He considered, for a moment, describing what happened before, when he had seen the city in his dreams before they even had gotten a glimpse of the place but that desire faded quickly. Much as Leonardo tried to be a good leader, he probably wouldn't believe him and to be candid, Mikey couldn't really blame him. He'd experienced it and it still made no sense. "Can't tell you why though. I mean...aside from what I've been saying."  
  
Leo leaned back against the nearby wall. "Sometimes, we can't name a reason." He lay a hand on his sibling's shoulder "But we're in this together Mikey. You're not alone."   
  
It might have been silly but hearing Leonardo say that (making him the second person to say it) made him feel a little better. Being an extremely social turtle, being alone was easily the worst fate that Michelangelo could picture for himself. As much as he loved to play tricks and bother his siblings, he'd feel completely lost without them. They had a camaraderie that most brothers rarely experienced.   
  
That being said, he couldn't shake that feeling of doom that lingered over his heart. It made no sense and sitting awake with Leo helped some but it was still there, like an itch he couldn't quite reach. He took to fidgeting, swung his nunchaku around and over all, did anything to keep his body occupied so that his mind wouldn't play its favorite game of 'Worst Case Scenario.'  
  
He was almost relieved when they had all served a shift and it came time to continue walking. Leonardo watched him carefully. The fact that he had not slept did not sit well with the leader but there was little to be done about it. So, they pressed on, each of them taking a different approach. Leonardo always out in front so he would be the first one that this creature, whatever it was, encountered. Raph always the next in line, his sai at ready and positioning himself between Leonardo and Donatello and Michelangelo. That was his style, much like Leonardo, he would serve as a barrier between danger and their younger siblings. Donatello was always checking his sensors but so far, they were telling them nothing.  
  
Mikey trailed in the back, thinking. He had not yet said anything for a good five minutes and he could tell it was unnerving his brothers, again. Raph kept glancing back at him and had called to him a few times about 'spacing out' on them but he hadn't the energy to quip much of anything though. His mind was doing it favorite torment hobby, firing all kinds of scenarios at him and he didn't like any of them.  
  
 _Stranger_  
  
Jerking his head up, Mikey's vision blurred for a moment, just a split moment going dark and in that moment, like a camera flash, he saw a pale face, long black hair, shrunken in eyes...  
  
"Mikey!"  
  
Shaking his head, the teen opened his eyes, recognizing Raph's gruff tone. His hot-blooded brother had dropped behind so he stood right next to him and was currently staring right into his face. "You zoning out on us, knucklehead?"  
  
Looking around, Mikey observed his other two brothers had stopped and were looking at him worriedly. Donnie asked, simply, "You just started to stare right ahead. You would have walked right over the edge" he indicated the narrow path they were currently walking, "If Raph hadn't caught you."  
  
"You didn't hear it?" He asked simply.  
  
Leo frowned, his brow crinkling in thought "Hear what, Mikey?"  
  
"The voice." The youngest of them argued. "_I_ heard it."  
  
Donnie approached, "Mikey, there was nothing." He eyed his sibling with concern painting his features. "What did you hear?"  
  
"Not just hear" The nunchaku wielding turtle corrected "Saw. You didn't see her?"  
  
Leonardo turned and walked over, laying a hand on his brother's shoulder, "See who?"  
  
Realizing abruptly that he probably sounded utterly crazy, Michelangelo could hardly back down now, "I heard a voice distinctly say 'stranger' and then there was a white face with black hair and shrunken in eyes."  
  
Raph blinked once then twice "Come again?"  
  
Leo folded his arms, taking on his 'thinking' pose. "You saw a girl with black hair and a white face? Where?"  
  
"Well...." Mikey winced, rubbed the back of his neck. "Right here. You guys were gone for a second and she was there and then boom, Raph's voice brought you guys back." He teased his older brother "Tol' you that your voice could scare off the dead, Raphie!"  
  
Raphael wasn't biting. "Brainac, what do you think?"  
  
Donatello frowned. "Well, it sounds like a hallucination. That can sometimes be brought on by not enough sleep or by lack of oxygen." He locked eyes with his younger brother, "Have you ever had that happen before, Mikey?"  
  
"Uh...nope. If any of us is gonna go crazy, it would be Raph here!" He joked, gently pushing his gruff brother's shoulder.  
  
A lie. He had but he sure as shell wasn't going to tell Don that! Well, this was a little different because he'd never had it been of a creepy little girl before. It _had_ happened before though. After they'd come back from that crazy cross-dimensional trip courtesy of Draco and that stupid time scepter, when he'd been sitting next to Donnie, trying to convince him to talk to them, he'd gotten a simple flash of a black, broken down world and what looked like him but this one had been older with a missing arm and was definitely sporting a Raph-like attitude. Less than a two second flashy image and then it was gone. That had been the first time, that he could remember, but then...he was known for having such a crazy imagination that sometimes it could be hard to tell the difference between what he was imagining and what was happening.  
  
Though, he hadn't really had that problem since he was about seven.  
  
And then there had been a flash of the Shredder as a Dragon when they'd first gone to see the Ninja Tribunal. Same deal. Two seconds tops and then gone. He'd just contributed it to deja vu when they'd faced crazy demon giant-lizard-thing.   
  
TOTALLY different than some creepy little girl suddenly invading his personal bubble!  
  
Raph turned, eyeing their leader, "Leo?"  
  
Shaking his head, Leo turned to Donnie, "You didn't pick anything up, Donnie?"  
  
With a negative shake of the head, the resident technology turtle responded, "Nothing."  
  
Raph eyed his youngest brother and pulled his arm around his shoulders, "C'mon chuckles, stick close to me. I don't want to have to save you from your bungee-jumping hobby again." He paused, lowered his voice, "We're with you, Mikey. You're not alone." Whether that was said for his comfort or for Raph's, Mikey wasn't sure. In any event, he opted to take it.  
  
Their steps definitely became more cautious. Leo had taken his swords out of their sheaths and he peeked around any curves and bends in the rocky walls with true paranoia. The way he kept looking back at Mikey was not doing wonders for the youngest's confidence either. He wasn't an idiot. He knew as well as the others that what he'd described seeing sounded very much like a onryo.   
  
Great. It wasn't enough that they had to go explore that creepy city but now they were in a cheap version of The Grudge? Lovely.  
  
 _Away. Away_  
  
Mikey jerked. "....please tell me you heard that...?"  
  
He didn't hear any of their responses because there was that blasted girl again! But at least this time she wasn't right in his face! He could see her right ahead, less than two yards. He pushed Raph's arm off and took off at a run. He did NOT appreciate anyone playing with his head and this girl was totally doing that! It _had_ to be her, right...  
  
"Mikey, stop! Those rocks aren't stable!"  
  
"Huh?" Looking down at Leo's warning, he caught sight of the very crumbling rocks under his feet right when they gave away. He swore it was like a cartoon for a moment, where he seemed to hover before dropping like a sack of bricks. The fall was quick and long, with the oh-so-friendly cavern walls deciding to take small little slices out of his arms on the way down.  
  
"Mikey!!"  
  
Landing hurt. A lot. It was kind of embarrassing actually. He was a ninja! He should have gone into a tumble or found footing or something but instead, he found himself rolling like a giant bolder to flop down on a disgusting wet and slimy cavern base. It knocked the wind out of him to be frank. For a minute or two, he laid there before his lungs remembered how to breathe and he yanked in a huge lungful.  
  
"Ow...ground floor. Bruises and bodily pains." Rolling to a sitting position, he blinked, rubbed his eyes and then blinked again.  
  
Okay, not cool. The creepy rocky paths had been freaky enough but down here, it was like some third grader went nuts with the black paint on a picture. He held his hand out and could just barely see the outline of it. Truthfully, even that was more than likely his mind playing tricks than actually taking anything in. Okay. Okay. Inventory. Despite hurting and aching, everything was intact. No broken bones, maybe a bruised rib or two from the fall (which despite what movies told you, hurt a LOT) but he wasn't bleeding.   
  
That wasn't what was bothering him though.   
  
It was silent.  
  
And not just quiet, no literally, silent.   
  
"Raph! Leo! Donnie!"  
  
The darkness swallowed his voice like some type of hungry monster. Not even an echo.   
  
Reaching up with his hands, Mikey yelped when his fingers met stone surface. But, wait...he had just fallen down here. There had to be an opening where he'd come crashing in. Standing slowly, he found he had to crouch slightly to keep from banging his head. This made no sense! Feeling with his fingers, the whole place felt concealed, crushing but smooth. Not like stone. Like glass almost.  
  
Step after step. Feeling. Smooth surface with no breaks, no hinges, nothing.   
  
All with that horrible drip-drip-drip nasty wetness. His feet were probably coated in it and he'd nearly fallen on his butt more than once. It was an unfamiliar texture and yet it smelled familiar.   
  
Raising his fingers to his nostrils, he inhaled, slowly.  
  
"Blood."  
  
He wiped his hands over the nearest surface and found the same thing. Blood. You never forgot the metallic smell of blood.   
  
"RAPH! DONNIE! LEO!"  
  
Again, nothing. His voice just wafted away, little more than a whisper. He fell to his knees, suddenly feeling like this place was getting smaller. It wasn't, the walls hadn't moved but it felt like it. It was so...this was too bizarre! He'd fallen down here. His brothers were less than a half mile away (most likely a lot less but he was not very good at distance calculations) and he heard nothing. Literally nothing.  
  
"Okay, okay." He coached himself. "Calm down, Mikey. You're just panicking. Relax." Easy to say, really freaking hard to do. Meditation had never been his strong point anyway and yet here he was, trying to meditate, trying so desperately to cling to something that would shine some light (either figuratively or physically) on this place. He couldn't panic. Yes. In. Out. In. Out.  
  
It seemed to do something at least. The room no longer felt so closed in and he swore when he reached up, he had to reach up higher to touch the cavern walls. Okay, that was weird. That made no sense and...  
  
In. Out. In. Out.  
  
He didn't know how long he had been doing it before something occurred to him and it was not a good thing.   
  
He reached up, placed his hand on the rocky wall.   
  
Breathe In.  
  
The wall moved out. As in, literally moved out.  
  
Breathe Out.  
  
It condensed.  
  
The room was breathing with him. The actual stone walls were moving in sync with his breathing!  
  
Sound then. Glorious, glorious sound. Amid this dead silence it...  
  
"--Onnie, Leo!"  
  
Wait...that was his voice. That was what he had been shouting but that had been a good ten minutes ago! And it wasn't, like, normal. It swirled, seemed to come at him from every direction, every angle, like there was another him in every inch of this space, just calling. Calling over and over.  
  
Michelangelo sank to his hands and knees again. Feeling around on that horrible wet floor, he finally found something different.  
  
Hard. Cold. Round...with two large holes, not far from one another and...  
  
"Oh...God..."   
  
A skull. He was fingering a skull.  
  
Scooting back as far as he could until his shell hit rock walls again, Mikey whimpered, this time not ashamed of it. "Donnie? Raph...Leo..." He again, only heard the swirling of his own voice in response. "Anybody?"  
  
Something hot, warm right at his neck.  
  
 _You are alone._


	2. Chapter 2

**CHAPTER 2**

"Mikey!"

Raph's call after their brother did little good, it was swallowed up by the darkness of the fall almost as soon as it left his mouth. They could only hear Mikey's telltale yelp for a few seconds and that chilled the fiery turtle's blood. Given the acoustics of these underground caverns, they should have been nearly deafened by the echo; Mikey's scream was notoriously high pitched. Instead, it was almost like he had not cried out at all. It was like that blasted chasm had sucked up anything that came into it, like a black hole.

"The shell with it..." Raphael growled and ran for the ledge, determined to just leapt down after him, consequences be damned.

"Raph!" Leo shouted after him, snapping back into leader-mode, knowing his hot blooded brother all too well. "We'll go down together!"

A second too late as the red banded turtle had already jumped down the chasm, a rope and climbing hook already at the ready in his hand. Rolling his eyes skyward and cursing his immediate younger brother's stubbornness and hardheadedness, Leonardo nonetheless gathered his own climbing gear. He turned to Donatello, who had already strapped his gear to his back and gave his eldest brother a nod before the two of them followed Raphael down the deep chasm.

"Raph! Right behind you!" Donnie shouted after his brother, though he could hardly see where he had gone and much like Raphael's shout, the cavern seemed to swallow up any sound. Donatello's scientific mind started shouting all kinds of warnings about the contradictions and how that should be a huge red flag but he shoved them to the back of his mind for the moment. He needed to analyze, he needed to look over the possibilities, the clues that were likely scattered around but he also knew his limitations. He was thinking about Mikey and only about Mikey right now (well, maybe some of his mind was thinking about keeping Leo and Raph from killing each other at the bottom) but ultimately, they had to find their brother first.

Dropping to the floor of the cavern came pretty quickly and Donatello quickly turned on his light and swept it over the area.

It was a small space in all actuality. Not even the size of one of their bedrooms and rock walls climbing up at a steep angle. It was a simple drop. The caverns had not diverted at all into other chutes and Donnie could see everything in the chamber with a simple turn-around. That being said, he saw quite a bit—stalactites, cracks and crevices formed from the walls, the drip-drip-drip of water as it pooled down from above, the cracking as loose stones tore free and rolled down but he did not see what he wanted to see.

He did not see Mikey.

“What the shell is this? Some kind of sick fuck’s idea of a joke?!” Raphael had already taken his sai out and leveled them, expecting anything and everything to spring out at once. His muscles were bunched and his eyes narrowed. “Mikey! Come on out! This ain’t funny!” Yes, that HAD to be what was going on. Mikey had a bad habit of playing jokes at the worst possible time and given that they had not seen any turnoff, nor any hidden passages, (the climb down had literally been almost like going into funnel) he HAD to be here somewhere. They had just missed him because he could be a damn good ninja when he tried. “MIKEY!”

His voice didn’t echo but seemed to be swallowed by the cavern around him which only succeeded in fueling the boiling in his blood more. “MIKEY! COME OUT! IF YOU’RE PLAYING JOKES SHELL-FOR-BRAINS, I’M GONNA THROTTLE YA!!”

“Raph!” Leonardo lay a hand on his brother’s shoulder, ignoring when Raph shoved it off “He isn’t here.”

“Then where the shell is he, Einstein?!”

“I’m… not sure,” The leader admitted, his arms crossed “But screaming into nothing isn’t helping to find him.”

“Well, I don’t see you exactly leading the charge here!” Raphael spat.

Donnie raised a hand in an attempt at peacemaking “Guys…”

Leonardo narrowed his eyes, moved his hands to be on his hips, completely ignoring his purple banded brother, “We need to get our bearings! We have no clue about these caverns and rushing into anything without a plan is foolhardy!”

Raphael snarled “So, the fact our little brother just fucking disappeared don’t matter? It’s still ‘wait and hurry up?’”

“Guys…” Donatello tried again without success, raising his voice some. He only had limited light and his two siblings being at one another’s throats was not helping him as he tried to think, as he tried to analyze what could have happened, where their youngest member might be. C’mon, they had no time for this dick-measuring contest!

“Raph, what do you suggest?” Leonardo snarled, balling his hands into tight fists. The accusation that he didn’t care what happened to their brother struck him hard and he was going to be damned if he let Raphael get away with such an accusation. “Rushing around like headless chickens? Banging our fists into stone walls? I know that’s YOUR response to every problem but it won’t help us here! It won’t help us find Mikey!” The cavern was dark, with only Donatello’s limited light for the moment but he could feel the smallness of the space, he could hear the rapid pace of his brother’s breath, the grinding of his teeth. If he hadn’t known better, he would have sworn Raphael’s eyes took on a menacing red glower.

Eye ridge twitching, Raph growled, his voice a deep gravelly tone, “Watch it—“

A sharp pain cut through the back of his skull at that point, making him drop his threat and yelp involuntarily, reaching up to rub a growing goose egg. Leonardo followed him not a half second after, clutching his own throbbing skull. A series of curses escaped Raph’s mouth and Leo turned to see his attacker, his muscles tensed and his eyes seeking to find any light to follow his opponent’s movements…

Donatello twirled his bo and stuck it back into its sheath “Both of you. Grow the shell up.” His voice held dark determination, “I’m going back up to see if I can find any clues. _I’m_ going to find my brother. If you two want to stand here in the dark arguing over whose fault it is, be my guest but it won’t help Mikey.” That said, he grasped his climbing rope and headed back up, his eyes focused on the small narrow passageway that had led into this chasm. He wasn’t at the bottom, so logically, that meant there had to have been a turn off, a hidden chute, something they missed. With as dark as this place was, they were going to have to go over it, inch by inch.

After a moment, Donatello felt his two older brothers join him on their ropes.

Raphael offered “Hey, sorry…about getting all steamed down there. You’re right.” He didn’t normally admit such a thing but the facts were what they were. They didn’t have the time to be fighting among themselves. They still had that abomination of Bishop’s running around loose somewhere. They need to find Mikey and they needed to find him fast. As much as yelling at Leonardo might have alleviated some of his stress, he also knew it was a falsely placed outlet. He was worried and when he got worried, he got angry. Donnie was right though; arguing over this didn’t do anything to help their brother.

Leonardo, on Donatello’s left, commented “But I still say a smack with the bo was a bit much, Donnie.” He didn’t feel like adding that it had been just what both of them needed at the moment though. While Raphael was definitely the turtle that ran on anger like it was gasoline, Leonardo was not immune to it. With Michelangelo, he tended to be a bit overprotective at times but with what Mikey had been babbling about before he fell—about seeing things that weren’t there and having not gotten any sleep the night before, he was vulnerable. Leo made it a point to be there for his brothers when they aren’t strong, just as they tended to do for him. Without knowing where Mikey was, he couldn’t do that.

_Focus._ He coached himself. _Donnie’s right_. _Let’s approach this again with level heads…_

The genius turtle scoffed, snorted at Leonardo’s remark, responded with his typical deadpan,“With as hard headed as you two are, if I’d have done what we do with Mikey, I’d have broken my hand.”

* * *

 

Mikey was not ashamed to say he screamed. Whirling around, fists clenched, he did a very amateur first-year ninja thing.

He swung before he knew what he was aiming for.

The pain was sharp and sudden when his hand collided with the glossy, wet stone wall. A series of words that normally only came from Raph spilled out of his mouth as he grasped his hand and cradled it. Something had bruised, if not broken. _Stupid._ He cursed to himself. _Stupid, stupid, stupid._ That was a mistake he had made when he was kid, when he had first been learning his katas. He should have known better by now. You never swung at something that you couldn’t see! He could _hear_ Leo’s sharp lecture already. He’d panicked and look what he had to show for it.

However, that did not take away from the fact that there was a seriously creepy voice talking right in his ear. And it was doing that weird surround sound deal that his own voice had done earlier. What was he supposed to do? Just sit back and say ‘oh, hi to you too, creepy-disembodied voice?’ Nope, sorry.

“Who’s there?” Michelangelo shouted in response though, honestly, in what movie did the voice ever respond…

_My name is mine to give to those I wish and you don’t deserve it._

Okay, it figured that in HIS movie, the clichés didn’t apply. “Well, if you’re here then I’m not alone, am I, smart guy?’ Michelangelo snapped back, trying to keep the tremble out of his voice. One nice thing was he had learned about putting up masks a long time ago. Sometimes, you had to. He’d learned how to make anyone laugh, no matter how angry or scared or depressed they were. He was the happy turtle, remember? This was a little different but the last thing he needed was…whatever that thing was…catching him off guard.

_You are afraid._

Mikey caught himself before he startled too much. “You mean you WISH I were. I’ve dealt with way more scary things than you…whatever YOU are!”

A sudden burst of wind, the room moved, it trembled. Wait…okay, the breathing walls had been creepy enough to deal with and now the walls were shaking? And not like, earthquake shaking but the kind of shaking you do when you’re scared. The kind that he would have been doing right now if he had not schooled his muscles to go tight. The walls went wet but not that nasty metallic smell of blood. Blinking against the empty blackness, he lifted his hand to his nose and sniffed again.

Salty, clear…tears.

Tears?

Now the walls were crying?

When had he started to breathe hard again?

The walls responded in kind and he nearly felt like he was being pushed into a tight ball. He was being crushed! He was going to be crushed! Panic started in his heart and his lungs began to heave, without his conscious effort.

_Calm!_ He shouted at himself. _Calm! Not turning into the hysterical damsel. They always get killed._

Shaking visibly now, the walls mimicked him which only made the tightness of the room seem all the more intense. He pressed his hands against the nearest walls, trying to push against them as much as he could. When did that become a good idea? He wasn’t Silver Sentry! What did he think pushing against the walls was going to achieve? Rock versus turtle skin (heck, even turtle shell!)…rock always won. What was he doing? And what was that weird whistling sound, that heaving gasping…

Right. Him.

_Calm down!_ He half shouted aloud, half to himself. _Please calm down, Mikey. C’mon, you’re the Battle Nexus Champion! You can…_

**You won the Battle Nexus Championship by sheer dumb luck! Emphasis on the dumb part!**

Michelangelo whirled around, slamming the side of his head on the wall in the process. “Raph?” He questioned, silently, nervously as he hissed through the pain. That had distinctly been his brother’s voice. That snide tone and that unmistakable accent. But there was no one! But he had heard Raphael plain as day! “Raph!” As before, this damned room swallowed his voice like some kind of hungry animal. There wasn’t even the faintest of signs that he had spoken at all. The room grew deeply cold. When Michelangelo exhaled, a puff of air turned to mist in front of him and his limbs contracted and shivered.

“Raph…Donnie…Leo…please.” He pleaded again. He had never wanted ANY of them as much as he did now! They would tease him merciless but he would have gladly clung to Leonardo like a frightened child right now. Just anything to know he wasn’t alone. To know he wasn’t just abandoned here…

_You are alone_

The room was suddenly illuminated, a horrible red light that was every type of unnatural. All red coloring but no warmth. If anything, it was colder than it had felt before. He jerked his hands away from the wall when it suddenly stuck like it was made of ice. He tried to turn but the walls were right against his shell and plastron now. He managed a half turn but there was no moving more than that. The pressure made breathing even more difficult and the cavern walls tightened more as his breathing became more difficult. The walls were dripping, wet with blood. It was blood. He had smelled it before but now that he could see…it was dark red blood, artery blood. What they had called ‘death blood’ when they were training because an artery cut was more likely to take out your opponent. It…this was ALL artery blood! But…wait…how was it still wet and how was there so much of it that it painted the walls like some kind of twisted interior decorator working for Marilyn Manson?

Bones crunched under Michelangelo’s bare feet. He gave an unwanted shout and scrambled backward, successfully wedging himself into the tight condensed tuckaway. The bleached bones and empty skulls suddenly peering at him, completely devoid of any life. How had…there had been flat, solid ground before but there was nothing that resembled bare ground now! White bone upon white bone, white bone after white bone, piled up like dominos. No, like a blanket. The whole floor was flooded with them. He had an eye for detail and he did NOT want to see the details of this! Deep gorges on the bones, scratches and indentations—these people did NOT die pleasantly.

He wanted out. He wanted out. He wanted out. Anywhere. He wanted to be safe, away from this mess, back with his brothers!

His arm slipped INTO the stone that time.

“Wha…” He managed with his rapid breathing.

The red glossy stone slipped over his left arm like it was alike. Sliding and moving like some kind of red ocean wave, pulling. He jerked and yanked but all that did was make him realize that his legs were stuck in the same manner. The walls were moving, sliding but now they were sliding OVER him. Trapping him…he couldn’t move, not at all, not even an inch!

“LEO! RAPH! DONNIE!” He screeched again, at the top of his lungs.

A laugh, not any of his brothers but that creepy voice with no face again.

“DONNIE! RAPH! LEO!!” Panicked, he tugged but it was like sinking into a pool. Living liquid that pulled you under and rushed over you like its purpose was to conquer every patch of skin you had. The tiny room seemed to grow tinier as he faded more and more into the wall. “LEO! DONNIE! RAPH!” Tears finally erupted from his eyes and those glossy walls began to run, run like a living river, spilling over his face and beginning to partially distort his vision. For the first time in years, Michelangelo sobbed “Big brothers!!”

For a moment, just a faint moment, that damned chamber opened, opened into a small clearing and he could barely make out three draping ropes and then from a distance in that oh-so-familiar snarky tone

“…I’d have broken my hand.”

Then he saw and heard nothing.


	3. Chapter 3

**CHAPTER 3**

Solid dead stop.

Leo’s muscles tensed into steel for a moment and he looked back down from where they had come. “Mikey?” He called, though with a questioning tone. He had been down there, same as Donatello and Raphael. There was nothing. It had been a straight circle of nothing, just rocks and water and nothingness. Yet as he climbed upward, he had a distinct feeling that they had missed something, something important. Almost like his littlest brother was calling out for him. He dangled there a moment, gazing down into the blackness as his “ninja sense” as Mikey was fond of calling it, began to shout at him.

“Leo?”

Raph dropped down to his side, adjusting his grip on the rope. “What’s up, Fearless?”

Biting his lower lip, Leonardo narrowed his eyes “I don’t know. I could have sworn I heard something.”

Raphael shifted his gaze back down into the dark cavern bottom. “Like what?” There was no teasing in his voice. His tone was focused and firm as Donatello dropped back down to join them, “You hear anything Donnie?”

Donatello shook his head “No, what is it, Leo?” His brother had that serious-calculating look. They usually only saw it prior to them going into a battle. Granted, they definitely needed a calculating mind right now to try and find out where Mikey might have gone but the way Leo was staring, like he was trying to set the darkness on fire, there was an intensity there that only his family ever saw. He looked almost exactly like he had after they had barely escaped Chr’ell’s ship, before his complete emotional melt-down.

“A feeling…it’s probably nothing but…” he took the light from Donatello and dropped down the ropes, bending his knees to reduce the impact of the landing. His two younger brothers exchanged glances, shrugged but then let go to join their sibling on the wet hard ground. Donatello didn’t truly know what to make of it because Leo rarely led them anywhere without a good reason for it. Given the near fist-fight they’d avoided a few minutes ago, the fact that Leonardo was delaying them seeking out answers to investigate back down here was enough to put him on edge.

Okay, this whole PLACE put him on edge! Nothing made sense! They had seen Mikey fall, they had followed his fall to the T. There were no turn offs, no extra holes or chasms (he had been checking the entire way up and now, he did another sweep over as they descended--though it would have been easier if Leo had left him his light!) and there was nothing. Absolutely nothing. Scientifically, their brother HAD to be at the bottom and yet he wasn’t. His mind couldn’t make sense of it! It wasn’t like there had been some type of trap door or something they had missed either. That entire chamber had been pure stone.

Settling on his feet as they hit the floor, Donnie focused his eyes, waiting a moment for his eyes to adjust to the small amount of illumination their flashlight provided. Didn’t take too long, given their years of venturing in the dark. Well, as long as they were here, Donnie was determined to make the incongruence in his brain shut up. There had to be an explanation for this, there had to be an explanation for why the sound just swallowed up in here. There had to be a reason for why a fall led to utter and complete disappearance.

But only for Mikey, not for them. No sense, again…

Eyes darting around the chamber, Donnie moved to put his hands on the walls. They were solid, they had figured that out. However, there HAD to be an explanation. There had to be. His little brother had not just dropped into a black hole or wormhole…

_Wormhole?_ Donnie shook his head. He’d been watching too much Star Trek with Mikey.

_No, not too much_. He told himself sharply. Not enough was more accurate…when this was all done, if…no, WHEN they got Mikey back, he would gladly sit and marathon the entire series of TNG if that was what he wanted. Shell, just let them find him ALIVE…let them find him at all…

Donnie frowned and directed his eyes on their surroundings as his two other brothers spread out. None of them knew what they were looking for exactly (after all, they were just following Leo’s gut feeling that they’d missed something), aside from the fact that it had to be SOMETHING out of the ordinary. Being ninjas, you would think this would be an easy task, given how detail oriented they had been trained but it was not so simple. For one thing, their detail-oriented turtle was the one that was missing. Raph couldn’t see the trees for the forest, Leo was good at battle strategy details, Donnie was good with mechanic details but it was Mikey that had the photographic memory, the one that noticed the littlest detail as being ‘odd.’ It was one thing that made him a good artist; he would sketch things from memory without any trouble and the purple banded turtle had never longed for it more than now.

They needed Mikey to **FIND** Mikey. _Irony, you’re a bitch._

Solid. All of it was solid. No odd markings, just simple stone and water. No, there had to be something else. A hidden passageway, a hinge in the stone, a hologram…something! Things didn’t just vanish! His brother had not just vanished. There was a logic explanation for all this and he was going to figure it out. Everyone called him the smart one, the turtle with brains but he sure didn’t feel like it right now. He felt at his wit’s end. None of the rock that he slid his hands over was any different. The same ol’ ugly stone and dripping water and not-Mikeyness.

“I don’t know what I heard,” Leonardo admitted, his eyes darting around the room, falling on Donnie in his quest for a moment before clarifying, almost as if to himself “I just know that something….” He shook his head and amended “It _felt_ like Mikey.”

Eyes round a moment, the hot blooded turtle inquired, twirling one of his sai “Where? When?”

Grinding his teeth in utter frustration, Leo darted his eyes around, every sense on ready alert, every possible nerve frayed and exposed. He had no logical explanation nor could he even say without doubt that he heard ANYTHING but something had told him that it had been Mikey. “When we were climbing up” he clarified to Raphael, “I felt something…almost like it was Mikey calling for us.” Honestly, he couldn’t recall the exact words or anything. “I can’t say anything more precise than that.”

Donnie let out a gusty sigh “Are you sure you aren’t just hearing what you want to hear, Leo?”

Stiffening a little, the leader remarked “Maybe. But is there anywhere else Mikey could have gone, Donnie?”

Caught, the purple banded inventor leaned his head against the wall, “This whole place makes no sense. It’s like the rules of physics just took a vacation. You know as well as I do that caverns don’t eat noise like this one does. You know that without any turn offs, there is only one place Mikey could have gone and that’s here. But he’s not.” He gestured to the wall like it was a PowerPoint presentation. “But there’s nothing. No openings, no hidden walls, nothing! Science says my brother is supposed to be here and he’s not!”

Raph paced, slamming his fist into the wall at regular intervals. He was thinking along the same lines as Donnie. But he wasn’t feeling any hollow spaces, he wasn’t finding anything that might be some kind of hidden chamber or room. Anger boiled in his heart and he was about two second away from just going at the walls with his bare fists. Someone was messing with them…that had to be it. “What about a Transmat or some weird shit like that?” He countered. “That’s real good at making people disappear.” He paused

The youngest of the three present shook his head firmly “No, even a Transmat has some evidence. There would be technology here…wires, metal pieces…something.” Tapping his hands against the wall, in a similar fashion to how Raph had, he remarked, “And we would have seen some sign that it had been used. It’s not a very stealthy invention.” He frowned, his mind slowly sorting through all their past adventures, trying to find something that fit with this bizarre scenario. “And I don’t think it was something like April’s uncle’s amulet either. Same thing. There would have been some kind of light, wind, feeling…something.”

Anger winning out, Raph punched the wall, hard. “Then what the shell?! Mikey didn’t just drop off the face of the earth!”

His impulse went unanswered as the blackness of the room swallowed it. Leonardo let his brother have his fit. What else could be said, or done? What did they do now? For once, he didn’t know.

* * *

 

Hard to breathe…

Mikey tried to take an inhale but it did no good. No air, no air at all.

Yet…he was conscious. No air, not breathing but he was conscious.

Well, what did he expect inside a wall? The no air thing made total sense. The still being conscious? Not so much.

Pull, push, strain, no matter what he did, the encasing around his limbs held firm and hard, like concrete. He wasn’t budging at all. He couldn’t sense or make out ANYTHING!

_Where am I? Why am I here? Is that creepy spooky voice gone?_

**_I told you that you were alone._ **

_Damn it, spoke…er, thought too soon._

Michelangelo felt trapped, crushed, utterly helpless. He was blind, deaf, could not taste, could not feel. Nothing. It was like all his senses had been cut off. He felt pressure, he felt claustrophobic but none of that was from outside sources. And yet, they were. He was trapped in a wall, right? So…wasn’t this feeling of being crushed from that?

But…he hadn’t been trapped between two pressing pieces of stone or even pushed into a space too little to fit. His shell hadn’t cracked, at least not that he had noticed. None of his bones were broken and he felt no pain. He felt tired, drained and panicked but not hurt. It made no sense…it didn’t feel like he had been pushed somewhere else, more like the room had grown around him. Yet with every second, he felt more and more drained, like he was running a marathon across New York City and yet no muscles protested.

This was confusing as shell.

And scary. Petrifying. Trapped, helpless, no means to communicate, being so vulnerable…being so….

Alone.

He’d rather focus on the confusion because if he focused on the fear, he was fairly certain he was going to wet himself. His brothers, God, he wanted his brothers. Or Sensei or anyone. Anyone at all! What had he done to set this creepy voice against him so much?

_Look, creepy voice,_ he protested. _Can you at least tell me who you are? I’d kinda like to know who’s trying to kill me._

**_I am old_ **

_Swell, that’s informative._ Michelangelo responded _. Then I’m young and spirited. Know a lot about me with that grand description, don’t you?_

**_You’ve told me more than you know._** Came the creepy response

Almost immediately after that, he nearly screamed because it…well, the only word he could think of to describe it was violating. It was like someone had reached into his heart and was peering through all his secrets, all his inner most thoughts. He felt like his entire soul was being laid bare on a table, like chopped vegetables. All out for display and as much as he protested and tried to resist, the secrets kept pouring out. The location of their Lair, their friends’ addresses, their old adventures, the secretive stupid little things in his childhood. All out in the open and this…voice…entity, whatever it was, was flipping through it like pages in a book. Each memory, he could FEEL them look over each memory and it felt so…so…horrible. Defiling. He shuddered without wanting to or at least he was pretty sure he did, if he could move at all…

**_Oh, like I said, you’ve told me plenty. Battle Nexus Champion, are you?_ **

Feeling a bit steeled by that reminder, he forced his fear to retreat or at least back away a bit. Make the jerk pay for looking through his mind like that! Focus on that! _That’s right! You’re messin’ with the Champion of the Multiverse!_ He added a mental snort, since his physical one seemed out of commission at the moment _. And I’m warning you---_

A laugh, a laugh so deep and loud that Michelangelo’s entire mind began to throb. He couldn’t exactly say it was his head because it was more…internal. Like, beyond the head, beyond the brain, somewhere deeper. It chilled every inch of his heart.

**_You warn me? Oh, you are indeed a fun one, little Mikey. Battle Nexus Champion. Have you forgotten?_ **

_Forgotten…_

His words went silent then because his mind was suddenly full of voices, full of feeling. Memories. So many memories, all firing at once.

**You won the Battle Nexus Championship by sheer dumb luck! Emphasis on the dumb part!**

**And I thought the trophy was bad**

**I was really looking forward to somebody finally shutting Mikey up about being Battle Nexus champion**

**Yes, pizza sounds very appetizing right now, with lots of pepperoni and karma.**

Mikey whimpered, despite himself. All those feelings that he never dared show came firing back with each statement.

Doubt

Guilt

Distress

Heart break

**_What’s the matter?_** Came that irritatingly cold voice again. **_Weren’t you just talking about being Battle Nexus Champion?_**

_I…I am!_ Mikey knew he wasn’t fooling anyone, least of all himself. Hearing those lines again, feeling those emotions again, the wind was swept out of his sails and he had nothing to grasp hold of. His gloating, all his self-praise, it had always been a rouse, something to make him feel better. He had hardly believed it when it happened but perhaps what had been most disheartening was that his family had not believed it either. Pure and utter shock. That had stung. Despite their congratulations, it had stung.

No, he couldn’t let this thing get to him, not happening!

**_Are you?_** Sickeningly falsely sweet. _**Or was it not a chance victory? Was it not true that if Leonardo had been awake and well, you would have lost to him? That if Splinter had not withdrawn, you would have failed. You stand upon a pedestal made of lies and you know it. Oh, and yet you cling to it so desperately.** It laughed and Mikey shivered, his entire body went cold_. **_Like a man on a sinking ship, you cling to it. So desperate for recognition, so desperate to be special that you would wrap yourself in a cloak of lies._**

_But…but…_ Mikey wanted to claw at his head, to make these emotions stop. The emotions of not matching up to Donatello’s smarts, Raphael’s strength or Leonardo’s raw skill. Of not accomplishing enough for Father, of not being good enough. Of not feeling he had something to contribute. He pushed it down, covered it up with his jokes, his pop-culture imitations, his random one-liners and wise cracks. His job was to be the happy one, to make sure everyone else stayed happy, no matter what. That was what he had always devoted himself to. No matter what the cost, his brothers and father would smile. They may have given him grief but they believed in him, in their own way. And…yeah, okay, maybe he had gotten a few lucky shots for the first round but when it came time, he…

_I won the rewatch fair and square!_ What was he doing? He should have been figuring out how to get out of here, not arguing with something he couldn’t even see!

**_Oh, but how they reveled in your apparent failure, the loss of that title you held so dear. Did they not long to see you fall and fail?_ **

_No…no. They…they were sick of me bragging but they didn’t want me to…_

**Oh, I hope he’s saying what I think he’s saying.**

**But you don’t need to train Mikey, you’re the champion!**

_Stop it!_ Mikey screamed, _Stop it! Stop it!_

It hurt! A sick twisting in his gut. He hadn’t felt that way since…well, since that day! No, not even then! This was a thousand times worse! The twisting of failure, of humiliation of…of…of the one thing he had that set him apart from his brothers…the one thing he felt that he had done right…the tangible proof of his worth—the thing he wanted more than the entire world-- suddenly being wretched from him and they laughed at him. They laughed. They laughed and even cheered his apparent inevitable failure. Even Father. A cold, a deep sorrow that began in the depths of his soul started, faintly. Cold as ice but burned like fire and spread like a decaying disease, making his spirit droop and he felt even weaker than before…like he would just fade away into nothing. Into a dark, empty nothing…

But…no, he wouldn’t listen. He couldn’t listen. Defiance built in his heart and he protested, pushed back. He…he had never told them how important it was. He hadn’t…he couldn’t. They didn’t know…his family didn’t know. They would never have done it if they had known and…

_Stop it! Anything, anyone, make this stop!!_ Michelangelo screeched out again, hoping, pleading, for anyone, anyone at all to hear him. _Leo! Raph! Donnie!_ He called out but nothing. Nothing at all. _Please! Make this stop! You guys hafta FIND me! PLEASE! DONNIE! RAPH! LEO! BIG BROTHERS PLEASE!_

**_Oh, perhaps another memory then?_ **

God, he wanted to shut that voice up. _No more, please, please, please just stay quiet!_

**_You have so many good ones!_ **

* * *

 

“You guys hafta FIND me! PLEASE!”

“Mikey?!” The three ninjas whirled around. There was no mistaking it that time. That was their brother! They knew his cry, they knew his voice.

That cry was terrified, petrified. For all their teasing, Mikey was no coward. They had not heard that kind of fear, that kind of terror in a long, long time. Worst case scenarios immediately began to fire and with a group of ninjas who had fought more than their fair share of aliens, government agents, even mystical creatures, there was no shortage of heart-wrenching end results.

“Where are you, Mikey?!” Donnie had pulled his bo out, held at the ready, his muscles quivering in anticipation. “Where are you?!”

Raph’s voice rang out like bell, loud and clear “Who the shell has you Mikey? Where the shell are you?!”

Leo’s tone was focused, as it always was but there was that quiver, that faint fear that only family could hear. “We’re coming Mikey, we’ll find you.”

All these declaration sung together, a cacophony of worry and repressed action. For all their training, that voice had come from everywhere at once and yet nowhere at all. Echoing without a source and then swallowed up by the chamber like a greedy snake.

“Okay, you sick bastard!” Raphael’s threatening baritone carried no play. “Where’s my brother!? Show me my brother!”

The room shuddered. Physically shuddered. Not an earthquake. The rocks around them moved up and down, up and down, a rapid dance for a moment. Just a mere moment but too precise to miss and too bizarre to mistake.

In front of the three warriors, the solid rock cracked, a simple wavering line that crept up the wall and then expanded, pulled apart, like a series of jaws being pried open. Inside, a long winding hallway made of stone red as blood and jagged pieces of stone, like thousands of teeth dripping with water from the ceiling. An eerie wind with no source whipped through the long corridor. It distorted all sound that came out of it. “DONNIE! RAPH! LEO!” It echoed, an odd thing to hear after being in this chamber of empty sound.

Grinding his teeth, Raphael snarled, his knuckles turning white, “Let’s go find Mikey.”

“Uh, excuse me,” Donnie intervened, trying to be the reasonable one though every nerve in his body said jump forward “Do the words walking into a trap ring a bell?”

Leo nodded, eyes narrowed “Agreed. Only one exit, not here a second before, they…whoever they are…is obviously trying to lure us in.”

“So what are we supposed to do, Fearless?” Raph spat, his eyes narrowed. “Just sit out here? They got Mikey! They have to! Ain’t no other explanation.”

Nodding in agreement, he responded “I know. But we need a plan. If we run in there with nothing in mind…”

“BIG BROTHERS PLEASE!”

It was a wonder the three of them didn’t collide in their rush in. The walls shuddered again and then sealed shut.

* * *

 

**And there…you all died. All three of you. Because of a plan _I_ came up with, you all died!**

_No, not this. Not this._

Donnie’s world. The world that he had been sent to by that weird Ultimate Drako thing… had been a hell world. He had tried so hard to not tell them but they had known him so well. The way he was suddenly clingy. The way he would purposely grab at one of his arms, the way he would jump to attention at the slightest hint of argument between Leonardo and Raphael. He had pursued Donnie, relentless because it wasn’t right for him to be in so much pain and he was in pain. Mikey had nearly felt it himself!

It burned!

Everything burned. Every fiber of his being burned with pain, with anguish, hopelessness. The kind of sick lack of belief that made you want to just lie down and hope for death because you had even lost faith that your own hand could bring you relief.

_Get away, get away, get away._

_I NEED TO GET AWAY!_

A sudden rush, both like and unlike riding the wind. Swift, pleasant, sudden. The voice called, it screamed, it cursed after him and it was like falling into a deep, empty well that tumbled into eternity.

Then all was quiet.


	4. Chapter 4

**CHAPTER 4**

The overhead roof was dripping like a cheap Motel 6 but it wasn’t water that puddled the floor. Couldn’t exactly say it was blood either. It was like some odd metallic mix. There was definitely that rusty scent of blood but not fresh blood. Donnie reached out, swept his finger along the wall before bringing it to his nose and inhaling deeply. It was blood, definitely. But it smelled old, like a wound did after it had clotted somewhat but would still break through the scab and leak. Perhaps he should not have been focused on the environment and focused more on their brother but given that they were currently in a place that seemed to shift and change, it seemed pertinent to the resourceful turtle to keep an eye on what they might be able to use as an advantage.

“Mikey!” Raph’s call was deafening but much like before, it seemed to be swallowed the instant it left his mouth. Donnie and Leo heard it because they were right next to Raph (with Leo being sandwiched between the two of them as they made their way into wherever this was) but if they had been as little as five feet more ahead, he doubted even a vibration of it would have reached them. It was almost like being partially deaf. Unless you were right within arms’ reach, no conversation would carry despite the fact that the wide (or semi-wide) cavern walls should have done the opposite!

As for the call that had originally brought them in here, it had not stopped but it was nonsensical! At first, it had come from right ahead but it didn’t take long after they entered for them to realize that they could not very well trust their senses, despite the fact that they had honed them so well over the years. Mikey’s call went from being in front of them to being on the side. Then below, then above and then even in a circling pattern, as if he were swinging around them in a circle, calling and shouting for them. It had almost become a constant hum after a minute and Raph’s yelling to try and isolate the origin was not helping. And all of this without even a visage of their brother.

Raph’s shouts were starting to make his ears sting and yet he couldn’t blame him. What else did they have to go off of? They heard their brother but they could not find even a simple sign of him. Hence Donatello’s focus on the environment. It was obvious that if that even was their brother’s voice, it wasn’t him doing the shouting. It was too random and Mikey didn’t shout the same thing over and over. He was too creative for that. If he didn’t get your attention by using one term, he used another. This voice had been calling their names, in the same order, for about ten minutes. No. This wasn’t…couldn’t be…Mikey.

That, plus the fact that while their shouts had seemed to be swallowed up, the calls to them weren’t and that made no damn sense…

“Raph!” Leo finally cut in “This isn’t helping!”

The red banded turtle whirled on his brother and to anyone else, it would have looked like blind rage (and make no mistake, rage was certainly a factor) but Leo had learned a long time ago that Raph’s rage-look was rarely just rage. In this case, there was a thick layer of worry, frustration and fear, all delicately decorated with a coating of anger. “What should I do then?” Raph spat “Just sit here and expect Mikey to just drop out of the ceiling?” Muscles bunched and veins nearly popping out of his neck, his demands came out like a feral growl “Tell me Fearless since you seem to have all the answers.”

Leo, to his credit, stayed calm, despite the howling of his youngest brother’s voice tearing into his heart. “We knew it was a trap when we came in here.” He offered “This is obviously trying to make us trip up, make us emotional…”

“Doing a fucking good job of it.” Raph spat, his eyes darted around the narrow red cavern. This place was something straight out of one of Mikey’s horror flicks, right down to the wrinkled rocks and the eerie red light that had no source. It was always dripping but it wasn’t water. The worst was the sound though. He was hearing Mikey call for them, over and over. His big brother instincts were burning so intensely that he felt certain that his skin would catch on fire if it kept up for much longer.

When his little brothers, any of them, called for him, especially with as much fear and panic that he heard in THAT tone, he responded. Maybe he yelled and teased (or as was often the case with Mikey) punched them for being stupid, but he always came. His whole family knew that. No matter what type of trouble they got into, Raphael would always come bail them out of it. It might be done with teasing and yelling and “Shell, you are such a moron” but he would always come. No matter what, he always came.

Now, he wasn’t able to. He had to listen, over and over, to his youngest brother, his baby brother, screaming for him and he couldn’t get to him. He knew it was a trick (duh) but it was still his sibling’s voice and that was still Michelangelo’s pleading. Then, damn it all, it had shifted when they had all run in here and his brother’s voice had hollered “Big brothers, please!” That term had become a trigger for all three of them over the years. They had rarely called attention to their age differences over the years, as it was minuscule at best, but Mikey had always felt like the youngest and he had always carried his older brothers in such respect, though sometimes you might wonder about it. He had used to call them Big Brother when he was very frightened, normally after nightmares. He called out for them in that manner only when he felt he needed protection and given he had a pride as well, that had been a rare thing for him to admit. That had stopped somewhere around age eight.

Except once.

When they had exploded Ch’rell’s ship, when they had thought that was it…Mikey had whispered it when he had stretched out for him and for Donnie…too far away to reach them and with tears in his eyes… _Big Brothers…_

Whirling around, Raph punched into the red of the wall, cursing under his breath as his right hand vibrated into the stone with desperate frustration. “Where’s my brother?!” he snarled out, his breaths coming in ragged gasps.

Leo eyed Donatello, laying a free hand on Raph’s shoulder “Donnie, have you figured anything else about –“

“Raph, your arm!” He interrupted his eldest brother, rushing forward, his investigation of the walls utterly forgotten. Leo would have been knocked on his back if not for his cat-like reflexes, given how fast Donatello shoved past him. It was the alarm in his younger brother’s voice that froze Leo’s heart though. Donnie was routinely their rock, their solid foundation. It took a thing of great power to make him panic but that was most definitely a cry of panic. Having grown up as the eldest, he had all his siblings’ vocal tones memorized.

Attention called back to his fisted hand by both Donatello’s rush at him and his voice, Raphael whirled his face to the wall and yelped with surprise and a wee bit of fear. “What the shell?!”

The redness of stone and rock had begun to stretch and grow, like some kind of sick plant, and was crawling up to his elbow. Raph instantly clamped his hand over his arm, above the elbow and yanked. It didn’t so much as budge. He would have put his foot onto the wall for leverage but the entire thing was slithering like it was living liquid. He didn’t trust it not to take his leg too! It wasn’t hot or cold or anything but pressure, tugging, squeezing. It should have hurt but it didn’t and the weirdness of that just made it worse!

“Raph!” Leaping over, Leo clamped his arm onto Raph’s just as Donnie had done the same. The red rock (for it was solid, and yet moving like liquid!) was moving quickly and it had already reached up to their brother’s elbow. Growling under his breath, Raphael snapped

“If this fucking wall thinks it’s eatin’ me, it has something else comin’!” Pulling back as hard as he could, his siblings lending their own aid, which Raph was sure would leave bruises in the morning, nevertheless, his arm did not move. Heck, it didn’t even budge, not even an inch! Twisting to the right, he didn’t feel it give at all underneath the rock but he tried regardless. No way was he going down like something out of a Ghostbusters II knockoff. He snarled and spat “Is this all you got? Some possessed rock?!”

Leo growled under his breath. Leave it to his hot headed brother to throw insults at the thing trying (and currently succeeding) at killing him! It wasn’t budging, not in the least. It was solid as steel but Leo was not about to lose Raph. He hadn’t yet found Mikey and he wasn’t going to be minus another brother. Withdrawing his katana, he slammed it into the rock, but not with the blade. Despite what shows and movies would have you believe, swords did not generally do very well against stone. However, a strong strike with the kashira had the desired effect.

A small crack in the stone. Hardly much but it was cracking like a cast would split and Donnie was instantly shoving a kunai into the stone and nearly jumping on it with how much weight he thrust into it.

Like a nut, the rock cracked open a bit more and Raph needed no more prompting. Jerking sharply to the side, the sharp pieces dug into his skin, leaving behind small bleeding scars but he would gladly take that over becoming part of the wall. Jumping backward with his two siblings, the rocks and dust quivered a moment before vanishing back into the solid piece of earth. It was as if it had never happened! Rubbing he small ache out of his wrist and getting some blood flow back again, he demanded “Donnie, what the shell was that?!”

Trembling a bit still, the purple banded turtle straightened. “I…have absolutely no idea.” Not satisfied with that, he quickly began to analyze as best he could without getting within range. Didn’t matter to him that it was now still. It had been still a moment ago before it decided to try and eat Raphael. His two older brothers didn’t say anything a moment and while Raph let loose a string of obscenities at the wall (odd as that sounded), Donnie could hear the sharp inhale, the faint tremble in his brother’s breathing. He was frightened and while most might state of course he was, Donnie knew his older brother. Raph got frightened, certainly, but for it to be deep and serious enough a scare to catch his breathing…

Leo’s steady but concerned baritone was just what he needed to hear right now. “Donnie, any thoughts? I know you said you don’t know but can you even wager a guess?” Leo kept a hand on Raph’s shoulder though if it was more for Raphael’s comfort or for his, he wasn’t completely sure. While he tried to keep his eyes trained on Donatello, they constantly shifted, eyeing that rock that now looked solid as ever, as if nothing had ever happened. His eyes drifted to the floor, the surrounding walls, the ceiling as all of them were subject now to being danger. All of his senses were tingling and to top it all off, they could still faintly hear Mikey calling for them.

His little brother was calling for him…or had been not too long ago…and he couldn’t find him to respond. Mikey didn’t make a habit of calling for them, not like that. The desperation and fear in his brother’s voice made all Leonardo’s instinct flare and fire. He wanted to find his brother and pull him into his chest and damn it, if Mikey wanted to cry, let him cry so long as Leo knew he was there and he could keep him safe. He had to get to him and all that voice was doing was reminding him of how much he was failing in his leader role. In his ninja role. In his big brother role.

It was really starting to eat at him.

“That…that’s the thing about this place” Donnie finally admitted, turning to his brothers “NOTHING about this place makes any logical sense. This place should be pitch black but there’s light. The rocks shouldn’t move and shift like that; that’s not a natural response. Shell, the entrance to this place just POPPED up.” He rubbed his forehead in frustration. “None of my instruments are picking up anything useful. I can’t figure this out because it isn’t following any science!” He eyed Leonardo, “I…I’m sorry, I don’t know.” That had always been one of Donnie’s biggest fears. No, it wasn’t being wrong, despite what his siblings might sometimes tease, it was not knowing. Here, being here and having no idea of where his brother was, of what was going on and not having any idea of how to change that…that scared him to death. His ability to reason, to think and rationalize was easily his greatest strength in a battle and it had certainly come to his aid a multitude of times. Here, it was failing. HE was failing.

Mikey, odd as it might seem, had usually been Donnie’s confidante and vice versa. They had very little in common but that didn’t stop them from enjoying one another’s company. Mikey and Donnie regularly would just shoot the breeze with one another late at night. Donnie would babble on about his latest invention and Mikey, while not always following, always listened and then would spout off on some wild tangent about something seemingly insignificant that Donnie had mentioned. More often than not though, that kind of thinking forced the genius to look at his work again, to consider angles that he never thought of before. Ironic…utterly, tragically ironic. They needed Mikey’s kind of thinking to find Mikey.

He needed to find Mikey. _Think like Mikey,_ he coached at himself and then laughed at the absurdity of it. No one could think like Mikey. That light hearted laughter-based thinking. That ‘you can do anything’ cheerleading that always pulled everyone out of any mood they were in and that odd, almost psychic like ability that let Mikey in on their emotional state without them saying a word. You couldn’t imitate that. You couldn’t. And the idea that something or someone had snuffed that light out and he had been powerless to stop it…an odd rage like feeling coursed through Donatello’s veins. _No, he’s not dead._

He had to find Mikey. No…he WOULD find Mikey!

“Forget it, Don.” Raph snarled. “So you can’t figure out why the place came alive. What about Mikey?” Raph didn’t dare mention it but he had been forced to consider it the moment he yanked away from that…well, whatever it was. What about Mikey? What if he had been caught in a similar trap? Raph was the strongest of his brothers; that was a simple fact. Yet, despite that fact, it had taken almost all his strength plus Leo and Donnie to yank him away from it. It was no secret in their family that when it came to physical strength, Mikey was at the bottom of the totem pole; his strength was in his agility, his speed and you acquired different muscle tone for that than raw brute force. He could hold his own against nearly anything they fought (and if he managed to get after you with the strength in his legs, you were screwed) but if he’d been taken by surprise…

Well, that was an outcome that he was not willing to entertain.

Donnie paused a bit and for a moment, he glanced at Raph with eyes that looked utterly defeated by the mere mention of their missing brother.

“Okay,” Leo interrupted when Donnie’s lost eyes nearly killed him. “Don, you say this place doesn’t run on logic. So what does it run on? Doesn’t everything have to have some set of rules?” Everything operated that way. Even Mikey’s silly little games used some kind of rules, weird as they might be. If this world didn’t operate on their logic then what did it operate on? Figure that out and maybe they could find Mikey.

Scoffing a bit, Donatello responded to his brother’s inquiry with “Logically, yes. But like I said…this place doesn’t seem to do logic.”

“Fine” Raph cracked his knuckles. “I don’t hafta understand this damn place. I just want to find Mikey and get the shell out of here. So, if he isn’t here, we keep going, right?”

Leo took pause, thinking. “Logically…”

Donnie eyed him and then seemed to catch onto his elder brother’s thought process “You’re thinking find what’s logical and then do the opposite?”

Giving a shrug, the leader responded “It seems to make more sense than to try to apply logic here.” He was grasping at straws and he knew it but it was better than grasping at nothing, wasn’t it? It gave them some kind of goal, something to focus on and hopefully it would lead them to some kind of answers. There had to be some. Even if this place operated on some kind of Wonderland logic, didn’t there still need to be rules of some sort? Leo wished he could ask Mikey. That was something their little brother was an expert at.

Wishing did no good though. He eyed Raph, “What do you say Raph? Try to outsmart this place?”

Raph countered “Ain’t that in itself logical?”

Donnie sighed “In a way. I suppose.” He shut off his instruments and stuck them into his belt. “You have a better idea though?”

Well, not a good response to that. “Alright, let’s try it. Mikey ain’t dead.” Shell, why was he even saying that? “He’s too damn stubborn.” He felt inclined to add.

Donnie started to lead the way back that they had come from, commenting “I know. Hang on, Mikey, wherever you are. We’ll….we’ll find you.”

Raph brandished his sai “And mark my words, when I catch the bastard that’s doin’ this…”

A laugh.

A sharp, sudden, booming laugh that came from everywhere and nowhere at once. Swords, sai and bo were out in an instant and muscles pulled taut. The walls around them quivered and shook in direct correlation with that laugh. The freaking cave, cavern…whatever it was…it was laughing at them. Donnie tightened his grip on his bo until he felt his knuckles turn white. Leonardo’s eyes were darting to and fro, seeking out exits, seeking out danger, seeking out any potential source. As for Raphael…

Well, he was pissed.

“Who the fuck are you?!” His voice rumbled through the chambers and instead of being swallowed up like before, it seemed to be magnified this time, almost causing them pain by its volume and yet it did not echo. “Where the shell is my brother?! Show me my brother, you fucking coward!”

The voice laughed again and this time did speak, sounding neither male nor female and yet both at the same time. **_You seem to care quite a bit. Rather oxymoronic considering what I’ve learned from your brother._**

Leo snapped back, “Where is our brother?!”

Don cut in “If he’s hurt, I swear—“ It was rare thing to get a threat out of Donnie but they were always serious offenses when they happened.

**_Whether he is safe or not is no longer of your concern_ **

“Oh, the fuck it isn’t!” Raph spat but his threat could not be finished because suddenly the solid rock floor beneath them was not so solid anymore. It went transparent and then was suddenly gone. Gravity took over from there and all three of them fell into what could only be described as white nothingness.

The floor sealed their exit without a sound.

* * *

 

**Michelangelo…**

Groaning, Mikey shifted, slightly, rolling onto his shell “Ow….ow….ow.” It took a moment before his mind caught up with him. The voice, the memories, the…

Eyes flying open, he was faintly aware of someone calling his name but it wasn’t that same creepy tone from before. All the same, he glanced around, arms up, instantly in a defensive stance. He pulled his weapons from his belt and quickly searched the landscape, readying his training to spring as he leapt to his feet. No more getting caught off guard. He’d had more than enough of that for today! The landscape around him suddenly felt tight though not in the same way that damn wall had! Yet, still uncomfortable and hot and…

**Be at peace, child. You are not under attack here.**

This time, at least, there was a form he could center on. Bluish in color, humanoid and looking coated in such strong blue light but no face but now that he thought about it…everything around him was blue in color. He was certainly not stuck in a wall anymore! But as glad as he was to no longer be a wall decoration, it didn’t answer any of his questions! This stranger wasn’t helping! He’d already dealt with one creepy voice and now there was another one though, he had to admit this one felt different.

Wait…felt different?

That made no sense, did it?

But…it did. There was a voice but he certainly wasn’t hearing it with his ears. Yet he was still hearing it.

_Whoa…what the shell…creepy-city!_

**You would be surprised, strong child, all the things you are capable of hearing if you opened your ears. All the things you were able to see if you opened your eyes. You see and yet are blind and you hear and yet are deaf.**

Eyes narrowed, Mikey fired back _Okay, who are you, where am I? Where are my brothers, where did that creepy voice go and how do I know you’re not the same thing?!_ He paused, considered what he had been told and asked _And what the heck did you just say?_

 **As I said,** the voice spoke calmly, the humanoid form approaching him, **You are blind and yet see and deaf and yet hear. When you have been cured of that, then you will see who I am. But until then, you can answer one question yourself—do I feel as the voice you have been fleeing from?**

Mikey frowned. He hated having no answers but he had to admit. This thing-person-man-whatever was different. He felt different from that cold voice from before. He also felt familiar. Not familiar like he’d met him before but more like he’d met an “essence” of him before. It was a bit like…well, like if you met someone and became really close with them and then you met someone else that acted a lot like them and reminded you of them. That was the closest thing to what he was feeling that he could come up with. It _felt_ familiar. How, that he wasn’t sure about but he knew it was not that voice that he’d been dealing with before.

 _Okay_. He relented. _You’re not the same. But…where are we then? And my brothers…_

 **You brought yourself here.** The creature replied softly. Male, was definitely male. **You pulled yourself here and your body waits.**

 _Wait..wait, what? My body waits…I’m outside my body?!_ Excuse him if he started to panic but generally, almost-always, that was a bad thing!

 **Biological ties have very little pull here. Spiritual space is not the same as biological.** The man walked about him, calm. **As for your brothers, they are with the voice of your captor.**

 _What? My bros are dealing with that creepy-Exorcist like thing?_ Mikey’s heart raced and the landscape responded. Cold, burning rain. Harsh wind, a suddenly jolt that knocked him to his knees. He looked up, nearly screamed over the howling wind that cut into his face! _I hafta get to them!_

 **If you go now, you will merely be trapped where you were.** The voice said simply **Trapped within a wall, unable to move or respond. What good will you do your brothers there?** No accusation, merely a question. **You pulled yourself here for a reason, one that you know and yet do not know.**

Panic still flooding his heart, all kinds of thoughts ran through Michelangelo’s mind and spirit. His brothers were with that thing and who knew what it was doing to them. What COULD it do? It had lost Mikey in his own memories and he had nearly…no, he HAD crumbled. His brothers…

Oh God. Leo…and that whole mess after Ch’rell’s ship

Donnie…that creepy other dimension

Raph…his response to pretty much all of the above. And that time he nearly caved in his head with a pipe…

He HAD to get outta here. He had to get to them and beat whatever that thing was before it attacked them, before it broke them. Now. Like, yesterday he had to get out of here. And do what? He didn’t know but something. He could..he had to be able to do something, right?

Yet, he also knew that this…guest had been correct. What could he do right now? Come back to being stuck in a wall and being tormented? Yeah, that helped. What could he do? He’d crumbled before and he’d…well, apparently, he’d run away, somehow. _Okay…new plan._ _Okay,_ he addressed his visitor _You said I brought myself here, right?_

**Correct.**

_So…you said that I’d be amazed what I could really see and really hear. Is that what you’re talking about I need to do to help my bros? I need to _learn_ to not be blind or deaf anymore…I guess_? That still felt weird to say but his response was warm feeling flooding his body. Like a rumbling wave of sunshine. _Are you laughing at me?_

**Far from it. You learn quickly, child. You are blind because you close your eyes and deaf because you plug your ears. You have been doing so your entire life, except for occasional times, brief moments when pain and need cause your eyes to flutter and your ears to feel faint vibrations.**

_Uh…we’re not talking about physical ears and eyes, are we? This sounds kinda like what Leo and Master Splinter talk about sometimes…_ It sounded exactly like that actually. They talked about spiritual senses and how some people had them naturally and how some people could build them and how there were different kinds and…

 **Again, wise child. You have heard of what I speak. That will help.** The man paused **But I must give you a warning.**

 _Of course. Always a catch,_ Mikey retorted. Every superhero movie and books addressed this…

**Once this is learned, it cannot be unlearned. It will always follow you. You may learn to control it, you may learn to dull it. But it will never, ever go away.**

Determination flooded Michelangelo’s heart. _For my brothers, I’d take on anything Mystery-Dude. Teach me._


End file.
